An exploration of the linkages between family support and family economic development Family Support Programs Evolving social and political realities are Family support programs are community- impacting families’ day-to-day lives and their based programs focused on supporting ability to engage in a central function—caring parents in the job or raising children. for and rearing children. This is most true for Programs vary from $30,000 programs operating out of a church basement or a those families who are: donated classroom in a school to multi- million dollar programs that offer a wealth  At or near the poverty line, of services on-site. While programs vary in  Struggling make the transition from the kinds of services offered, structure and welfare to work, or setting they share a common approach to  Having difficulty maintaining financial their work: they are community-based, and stability within our volatile economic strive to be flexible and responsive to the climate and restructuring workforce. needs of the specific families and communities they serve. Most share the Welfare reform has created a new set of work following characteristics: expectations for a host of families—most of Services whom have young children and many of whom  Parenting education are headed by single parents. A volatile  Child development activities economy and the erosion of stable, benefit  Parent-child activities providing jobs at the bottom of the income  Peer support ladder have left many families headed by  Access to social services working parents struggling with poverty and vulnerable to financial crises. Philosophy  Strengths-based as opposed to problem Evolving out of grassroots networks of parents oriented helping parents these programs have viewed as  Peer-to-peer support their mission the supporting and strengthening of  Non-stigmatizing families with young children. Family support  Community-based programs pride themselves on their reputation of  Prevention vs. crisis oriented doing “whatever it takes” to support the families  Work with the whole family who are part of their program. This means listening to families and addressing the issues Focus that they are facing.  Support parents in the job of parenting  Strengthen families This paper explores how family support  Promote positive child development programs can work to promote the financial  Help connect family members to larger stability of the families with whom they work. It community is based on interviews and site visits with a  Address multiple needs number of family support programs across the country as well as key informants that have provided either policy oversight or funding support to efforts to link family support programs and family economic development activities. This paper presents an initial overview of this work. More detailed program

Draft Document—Not for Distribution 1 descriptions and additional program examples are also available for those interested in a deeper exploration of this work

Why explore linkages between family support and family economic development

Addressing family economic stability is key to doing effective family support Family Economic Development “In the absence of regular employment, life, The term family economic including family life, becomes more development is being used here to incoherent.” denote those activities that help Willam Julius Wilson families maintain economic stability they include: Anyone who works with low income families knows the destabilizing role that financial . Job training & placement insecurity can play for families. It compounds . Help accessing public benefits family stress, makes it more difficult for such as TANF, CHIP, SSI and parents to access important resources for their EITC . Credit counseling and repair children, and makes any given crisis or . Creation of Individual hardship more difficult to overcome. Poor Development Accounts families often have access to the worst schools, . Community development inferior housing stock and fewer recreational activities and developmental programs for their children. . Micro-enterprise programs Staff at many of the programs interviewed for . Community hiring strategies this paper described how family economic development work became a priority for their program as it became increasingly clear what an important family support need it was for the families they worked with— especially in the context of welfare reform.

Boys, Girls and Adults Parenting Center (GBA Parenting Center) In Marvell, Arkansas the Boys, Girls and Adults Parenting Center surveyed parents on their most pressing needs—jobs topped the list. Ten years later the GBA Parenting Center was the second largest employer in the poorest county in rural Arkansas. They built a housing project and trained women on welfare as construction workers on the project. They run a restaurant that is a combination training center on food preparation and community meeting place. All of this is backed by traditional family support services—home visiting, parent education, child development activities, and peer support. Connecting socially isolated families is an important part of effective family economic stability efforts and something family support programs do well.

Social networks contribute to families’ ability to maintain economic stability in a number of ways. First it is through social networks that individuals often get connected to employment opportunities. Second, strong social networks increase families’ access to informal supports. Informal supports are resources offered not by social service agencies —but by friends, peers and neighbors. They could include baby sitting, bringing over

Draft Document—Not for Distribution 2 dinner when the family is in crisis, providing money in the form of a loan or a gift, or even the simple task of lending an ear. Informal supports are an important tool that all families—but most especially poor families—use to maintain stability in a crisis and meet day-to-day goals. Much of the recent work on family balance sheets shows that if you subtract market costs of child care, transportation, housing and other needed supports low-income families are simply not making enough to get by. How families “make it” is by depending on neighbors, friends, relatives and supportive others to help out with childcare, to offer a ride when the car breaks down, to provide a loan so that the rent check can get paid. Building social connections between families is an important goal itself. Research connects social isolation to a host of negative outcomes for children and families—child abuse and neglect, domestic violence, poverty, welfare dependency.

“…findings on social support…suggest that the one-on-one support from project reps meant a great deal to participants. In fact it may have been a key program component, setting New Hope apart from other programs and benefits available to low-income workers. Executive Summary, New Hope Evaluation, MDRC

Family support programs have always adopted a family-centered approach that is well-suited to addressing the interconnected set of issues many low-income families face.

Family crises—or even everyday family issues such as concerns about childcare—can play a significant role in workplace stability. Families on welfare are more likely to have a history of domestic violence, child welfare involvement, or to have a child with special needs. States who have looked at the issue report that between 50 and 60% of current welfare recipients indicate a current or past history i of partner abuse . Between 25% and 35% of the When you’re working as we are welfare population appear to have significant with individuals who haven’t mental health issues and 6 to 18% abuse alcohol worked in 15 years you have to and other drugsii. Clearly these issues intersect recognize that this affects the with the capacity of parents moving off of welfare whole family dynamic. Often to meet the requirements placed on them by what keeps individuals from welfare to work programs. keeping their employment commitments are crises that happen at home. You have to Family support programming is based on an work not only with that parent, but ecological model. Programs work with the entire with their kids so that they family unit, recognizing that the actions of each understand that its important that individual affect all other family members. Thus, their mom goes to work and what family support programs work to find out about they do affects that. every individual in the family and create patterns for change that engage every family member. Richard Dana, Director Programs design programming that takes into Mutual Assistance Network account the intersection of family issues and the need to work holistically with the entire family to identify and address barriers that keep

Draft Document—Not for Distribution 3 them from meeting their goals. Most programs have developed strong ties to a broad network of social services and resources in the community. They often use assessment tools that are designed for use with the entire family and that facilitate comprehensive goal setting as opposed to a focus on a single issue.

The Comfort many families feel in family support programs and with family support workers is a key strength they can bring to family economic development work

Many welfare–to-work programs have difficulty getting participants in the door. This is particularly true of those families most in need of their services—those that are the most isolated and are facing the greatest numbers of barriers to employment.

As participation in family support programs has been largely voluntary in nature they have Avance, Texas had a historical focus on creating a venue in In San Antonio, Texas, the Avance the community that will be seen as a warm and program, realized that participants welcoming and a draw for community needed more than GED’s to get jobs members. This includes: a focus on creating a but were too daunted to connect to welcoming physical environment that reflects the community college system. In the community culture and values, specific response Avance had two staff mechanisms to create community ownership, members certified to teach college well developed outreach strategies, availability level courses and started to provide of programmatic space for community use, and college courses to parents on-site. staff that are strength-based and welcoming in On-site classes let participants “try” their orientation. Programs use the college level courses in a safe and comfortable environment. This was relationships they develop with families and often an important first step that the comfort families feel in the program as an allowed participants an opportunity opportunity to connect them with services they to consider college as an option for might not have felt comfortable accessing on themselves for the first time. their own. This comfort level can play a strong role in creating a safe space for families who have had little or negative work experience to approach job training or work opportunities in a safe The county requires agencies and supported work environment. to follow clients for 180 days. San Leandro Works tracks Long-term support for long-term issues clients for a minimum of 730 days and because of the In contrast to problem-focused programs, family childcare, food, clothing and support programs view their role as developing and clinic programs offered strengthening families over the long-term. For family through the Family Resource Center we often have support programs working with families on family relationships with families that economic development a short-term focus on, for last several years. example, getting a job, is connected to a long-term commitment to providing on-going support for Davis Street Family families. Their relationship with families continues— Resource Center even after the goal of getting a job is met, around the continuing and evolving family issues.

Draft Document—Not for Distribution 4 As they work with families making work transitions they are able to address the impact that new work responsibilities have on the larger family and on the ability of parents to support, strengthen and teach their children. They have a unique vantage point to work with families moving from welfare to work, or making other work transitions to ensure that those transitions are made in such a way that it strengthens the entire family, and promotes rather than undermining children’s development and security. This long-term relationship can also be the foundation for an approach to family economic development that views getting a job as a first step and greater economic stability for the family as the ultimate outcome. It can also provide a context for addressing the barriers to employment stability and career growth as they come up within the context of an ongoing relationship that is focused on current and present family needs.

Family Support Programs Doing Family Economic Development

Beyond Welfare

Beyond Welfare doesn’t look like your standard welfare-to work program—it only employs two full-time staff people and is not organized around formalized job training or job placement. Instead Beyond Welfare builds networks that connect families on welfare to caring and supportive others. Beyond Welfare is organized around the outcomes “money, meaning and relationships”. People need meaningful, employment with decent wages (money); they need a purpose around which to organize their family, employment, and community life (meaning); and they need relationships that are mutually supportive and reciprocal, both within and outside of family (relationships). These personal, individualized relationships are the key strategy Beyond Welfare uses to help families get and keep jobs. At the core of the Beyond Welfare model is mutual support provided in the form of weekly Thursday night dinners. Between 25 and 40 individuals attend— about 2/3 of those present are usually participants; the others are family partners and allies. Most participants are connected to a family partner—a committed community volunteer who agrees to work with the family to help them problem solve and identify strategies for meeting goals. While family partners are expected to meet with the Beyond Welfare participant once a month most are much more actively engaged in the lives of families in the program. This can be anything from lending an ear, reviewing a resume, providing child care while a mom goes to an interview, or using their own networks/connections to help participants get jobs.

Tracking shows that Beyond Welfare participants advance more educationally than the state welfare population as a whole. When employed they have incomes 50% higher than those leaving welfare for work as a whole in the state and are 50% more likely to have health insurance coverage in their jobs. Children of Beyond Welfare participants also show substantial academic improvement and greater participation in extra-curricular and civic activities. Finally, evaluations indicate that families experience the highest level of economic success when they effectively utilize multiple features (as opposed to one or two features) of BW.

Draft Document—Not for Distribution 5 San Leandro Works

This program is a collaboration between the Davis Street Family Resource Center, the local Chamber of Commerce, the Adult School and local community colleges; and the faith community. Davis Street provides case management and family support services; the Chamber focuses on job placement, job development, and creating a solid understanding of the underlying employment picture of the community; the Adult School and the Community Colleges provide the education that participants need to qualify for living wage jobs; and the faith community provides mentors to help to anchor participants in a social network.

The program has evolved into a “neighborhood model” that works with 60 clients who are employed but earning less that $14.42/hour, the Alameda County self-sufficiency rate. The goal is to get livable wage-paying jobs with upward mobility potential for the “underemployed”. Weekly meetings serve to educate clients in money matters, help to build social relations, provide opportunities to role play job search activities, create a regular “check-in” on the status of job searches, and provide opportunities to work on financial counseling and credit repair. Key to the success of San Leandro Works is the Opportunity Accounts Program. Participants who are part of the welfare to work program and are working full-time can qualify for $2,000 a year for up to two years for a total of $4,000 matchable to $2,000 of participant money. What is unique is the flexibility in how the money is saved as well as how it can be spent. In addition to tuition, buying a house, and skill development activities (all part of the national IDA program) Davis Street participants can use IDA funds to secure long-term leases or buy a car. Every Opportunity Accounts participant in the San Leandro works program is matched with a mentor from the local faith community. The role of the mentor is to help the client achieve their success. This looks different for everyone. The mentor has twice weekly contact with the client for a minimum of one year and up to two years.

While enrolled in the program participants have access to Davis Street’s other services: help accessing child care, parent education, parent child activities, mental health counseling, a large food pantry program, a clothing closet, social events, etc.

The Mutual Assistance Network of Del Paso Heights

MAN connects family support, youth development, employment services, and community development through integrated programming. Employment is a key part of all programs from youth services to home visiting. MAN’s model places the employment worker in a multi-disciplinary team that addresses all of the family’s support needs. The use of the multi-disciplinary team helps to ensure that employment issues are addressed in the context of other family support issues. Other members of the team help solve family or individual issues that serve as a barrier to work participation. Participants that are ready to work can be linked directly to job training and job placement services.

Las Palmas Career Center: Under a grant from the Sacramento Employment and Training Agency (SETA), MAN operates a one-stop career center that provides at a Draft Document—Not for Distribution 6 single site: job announcements and applications; computers with internet access (including CalJOBS and resume software); access to a career library; career assessment and counseling; pre-vocational training and workshops; access to on-the-job training, apprenticeships, and work experience opportunities. Two MAN employment service workers located at the One-Stop Center provide individual career assessment and counseling and refer those needing additional supports to MAN’s other services.

Job Fairs: MAN staff has worked hard to develop relationships with employers in order to counter stereotypes about crime and community work ethic that caused many employers to shun the community. The initial job fair was small with a few employers attending after they were assured that security guards would be present and their cars would be parked in a guarded lot. Those initial employers have become enthusiastic participants and the numbers have grown. MAN’s last job fair attracted more than 39 employers and 209 job seekers.

Hiring from within the Community: With 78% of its staff coming from the community, MAN is also the largest private ‘resident’ employer in Del Paso heights. MAN has a strong commitment to leadership and capacity building within staff. Any staff member with the organization for more than six month is eligible to take part in a six month leadership development course that meets twice weekly during work hours. This investment helps to strengthen the quality of staffing within the program and ensures that when staff move on to other positions they bring leadership skills that will help to bring the “MAN approach” to other organizations.

Community Development Activities: MAN is currently acting as the developer for a new facility will centrally locate several community organizations, public agencies and commercial businesses in one two-story, mixed-use facility with 10,800 square feet of office space. Upstairs will be office space for MAN’s Birth and Beyond program and the County of Sacramento Neighborhood Service agency (this will include CalWorks eligibility workers and Mental Health and Substance Abuse treatment specialists). The ground floor will be house locally owned businesses. The goal is to incubate local businesses. This will draw other businesses to the community and promote the overall economic viability of the neighborhood. MAN is also currently in the process of developing a housing project where they will be buy and rebuild boarded up and condemned houses and sell them back to neighborhood residents at a affordable price.

Lessons Learned—Themes from conversations on combining family support and work support

. Because family issues and economic issues are so closely intertwined effective family support must address family economic stability—the programs that were interviewed or visited for this paper largely had largely incorporated family economic development activities because it was articulated as a clear need by the families they worked with.

Draft Document—Not for Distribution 7 . Family support as a model has a lot to offer to efforts to help families make successful transitions from welfare to work—strong models build on the strengths inherent in the family support approach as described above. . Existing efforts to combine family support programming with family economic development strategies through collaborative linkages between family support and welfare-to-work programs have not always been successful. In part this is based on philosophical differences in the approach to working with families. Put simply family support programs are viewed a “coddling” families while they often critique welfare-to-work efforts for either “creaming” or ignoring issues of long- term employment stability in favor of short-term placements. Addressing these philosophical tensions up front will be important for developing collaborative models that work. . The combination of family support and work support activities may be most important for those families that are the hardest to serve—those that are facing multiple barriers to moving off of welfare. Unfortunately working with these families effectively requires long-term approaches that are not consistent with the way in which most welfare to work programs are funded and structured. . Those programs that seem to be most effective at blending family support and family economic development activities for families moving from welfare to work are not typical family support programs. They generally provide an intensive model of family support services. Most employed social workers and included intensive case management as part of their model for working with families. Most had relatively highly structured relationships with the Welfare-to-Work agency in their county—as well as with other state social service agencies. Conversely, they also had strong fidelity to some traditional family support program characteristics—hiring from within the community, emphasis on peer-to- peer as a basis for programming, strong community governance, use of social support and network building as a core aspect of programming, and an emphasis on family dynamics and working with the whole family. . Capacity building is necessary in order to develop effective models combining family support and family economic development activities. It was difficult to find strong models of family support programs that were also doing family economic development work for this paper. In some cases we were directed to programs that indicated in the interview process that they didn’t feel that their work in this area was truly strong. Those that we did identify felt that they were in the early stages of programmatic development and talked as much about strategies that had been attempted and failed as strategies that had succeeded.

Draft Document—Not for Distribution 8 i Institute for Women's Policy Research. "Domestic Violence and Welfare Receipt," 1997. IWPR Welfare Reform Network News, Issue No. 4. April. Available from Institute for Women's Policy Research, 1400 20th Street, NW, Suite 104, Washington DC 20036; 202/785-5100 iiNational Center for Children in Poverty, CHILD POVERTY NEWS & ISSUES - SPRING/SUMMER 2002